Roommate Albert

For iPhone, since 2022

Snap it. Find it. Confirm it.

Meter readings from the photos you take anyway. Roommate Albert finds your meter photos in the photo library, reads the value and the time each was taken, and hands you a ready-made suggestion.

How it works Questions

Everything stays on your iPhone. No account, no server.

Taken Mar 7, 2025, 6:42 PM
No. 21 481 735
Cold Waterm³

From photo to meter reading

You take the photo. The app searches and reads, and you confirm.

  1. Snap it.

    With the Camera app, whenever you walk past the meter. Roommate Albert doesn’t have to be open: a photo from three months ago is found just like one from today.

  2. Find it.

    In the Review tab, tap Search Photos. The app compares new photos with each meter’s reference photo and reads the serial number, so it tells apart two identical meters in the same basement.

  3. Confirm it.

    Every suggestion arrives filled in: meter, register, value and the date from the photo. One tap on Confirm takes it. A value lower than an earlier one is flagged for correction, because meters never run backwards.

For electricity, gas, cold and hot water, and heat. A meter with day and night tariff has two registers, HT and NT. When your utility installs a new meter, you add it as a new device: earlier readings stay, and the statistics show both in one series.

The serial number shows where the reading is.

In every photo of a meter, the display sits in almost the same spot, measured from the printed serial number. The app learns that spot from what you confirm. The on-device language model then reads exactly that region, and text recognition and your reading history check its answer.

The language model needs iOS 27 with Apple Intelligence; without it, text recognition reads alone.

The reading from the photo above: 59.763 m³. The three rollers after the decimal point count liters.
  1. Similarity picks the photos that look like one of your meters.
  2. Serial number or barcode says which meter it is.
  3. Region where this meter has its display.
  4. Value from the language model and text recognition.
  5. History picks the value that fits between the neighboring readings.

What that means day to day

  • Everything stays on your iPhone. Photos, recognition and readings stay on the device. There is no server anything is sent to.
  • You decide. Nothing lands in your history before you confirm it. You can correct or reject any time.
  • No account. No sign-up, no password, no email address.
  • Your readings come along. Bring in data from older versions of the app under Settings → “Import”, as often as you like, without duplicates.
  • Export as ZIP. A CSV file for spreadsheets and the photos of all readings. Plus a backup the app reads back in.
  • By hand works too. Add a reading without a photo with “Enter Reading”.

For your iPhone.

Roommate Albert runs on iPhone with iOS 26 or later. Reading with the language model comes with iOS 27 and Apple Intelligence.

Download on the App Store

Questions?

If the app misread a value or missed a meter, write from the app under Settings → “Contact Support”. A report is attached that helps find the cause.